The present invention relates to a mass spectrometer employed to analyze chemical compounds and mixtures in terms of their distinct mass spectra and, more particularly, to an inductive sensing electrode to detect charged particles constituting the ionized samples of the chemical compound being analyzed.
The accuracy of mass spectrometers is primarily determined by three fundamental steps which are ion production, analysis, and detection, wherein a shortcoming in any of these fundamental steps degrades the quality of the results obtained by a spectrometer. The advent of plasma desorption mass spectrometer (PDMS) and, more recently, electrospray ionization, and matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) have significantly increased the mass spectra range obtainable in mass spectrometry.
One method mass spectrometers can employ is the pulsed time-of-flight method for acquiring mass spectra of the ionized samples. The charged particle detection in time-of-flight mass spectrometry is usually performed by using either a microchannel plate (MCP) detector, a discrete stage electron multiplier dectector, or occasionally, Faraday cups serving as a detector. Each of these detectors manifests certain problems that limit the accuracy of the detection of the charged particle, and thus, represent drawbacks to the associated time-of-flight mass spectrometers.